Images of a patient are captured with a wide range of modalities including, for example, computerized tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed radiography (CR), digital radiography (DR) and mammography (MG). In order to properly assess the image and to subsequently treat the patient based upon information gathered from the image, the orientation of the patient at the time that the image was captured is of import. By determining the orientation of the patient, specific features of the patient are able to be identified as being either on the left side or on the right side of the patient. For example, the left lung may be distinguished from the right lung such that any subsequent treatment of the patient to address a lung condition that exists in only one of the lungs is focused upon the correct lung.
The orientation of the patient may be identified in various manners. In one example, a technician may place a designation, such as an L or an R, on or proximate to the patient so as to designate the left side or the right side of the patient, respectively. The designation will be captured within the image and will provide an indication to technicians, radiologists or other healthcare practitioners who subsequently review the image study as to the orientation of the patient. Alternatively, following the capture of an image, a technician may insert a designation into the image itself, such as by burning an L or an R designating left side or right side of the patient, respectively, into the image. By inserting the designation into the image, a technician, a radiologist or other healthcare practitioner who reviews the image study will be able to determine the orientation of the patient at the time that the image was captured. Still further, an indication may be inserted into the header of a medical image study that indicates the orientation of the patient at the time that the image was captured. The indication that is inserted into the header may be based upon a predefined protocol in which the patient is assumed to be in a particular orientation at the time that the image was captured. For example in posteroanterior (PA) chest exams in computed radiography, the imaging plate is placed in front of the patient with the x-ray beam originates from behind the patient. This arrangement results in an image in which the left side of the patient is displayed on the right side of the image as if the patient is standing in front of the physician.
While the foregoing techniques are useful in identifying the orientation of a patient at the time that an image was captured, in instances in which a designation is to be associated with the image, a technician may sometimes forget to place a designation proximate the patient at the time that an image is captured or may forget to burn a designation into the image. As such, it may be difficult to determine the orientation of the patient during subsequent review of the medical image study, at least with the degree of accuracy that is desired. Alternatively, in instances in which an indication of the orientation is to be inserted into the head of an image study, the patient may not be oriented in accordance with the predefined protocol at the time that image is captured such that the resulting designation of the orientation that is included within the header of the medical image study will correspondingly be inaccurate with such inaccuracies potentially leading to undesired issues associated with the subsequent treatment of the patient based upon a review of the medical image study.